A Fairy Tale Sort of Thing
by artemisgirl
Summary: When Sesshomaru starts carrying off her sisters, thinking they can spin straw into gold, Kagome begins to get worried and decides to take action, with the help of a red-haired kitsune she found in the forest on her quest. Kurama/Kagome fluff/parody


**A/N:** Hello! This story is loosely based on the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin. It's a slight crossover with Yu Yu Hakusho, as I've put Kurama into the story, just because I wanted to. I'm hoping to write more twisted fairy tales for the Kurama/Kagome pairing, so look for updates in the future!

Enjoy!

**Rumpelstiltskin**

Once upon a time, there was a poor miller who had three beautiful daughters. Now it so happened that he was talking with the king one time, and in order to make himself seem important, he said to the king, "I have a daughter who can spin straw into gold."

"That is an art that pleases me!" the king, who was called Sesshomaru, said, his eyes lighting up with greed. "If your daughter is as talented as you say, bring her to my castle tomorrow, and I'll put her to a test."

At this, the miller became very frightened, for he knew none of his daughters could spin straw into gold, and immediately attempted to distract the king from his aim.

"Oh, great king, my daughter is the only light in my life!" he cried. "I cannot bear to part from her!"

At this, the greedy king grew angry, his eyes bleeding red. He flexed his long claws, making them glow green with poison, and gave the miller a cruel look.

"What you will not give me, I shall take," he said nastily, and rode back to the castle in a rage.

The miller shook with fear as the king left, and as soon as he was out of sight, he ran into the house and called his daughters to him.

"Oh, my daughters!" he wept. "I have committed a grave sin that will ruin us all!" And he told them all that had transpired with the king.

Alarmed, the girls attempted to reassure their father and put him to bed, telling him that they would think of a plan to escape the clutches of the horrible king. They closed his door with utmost care, before setting themselves in a circle to discuss their tragic fate.

"Out father has truly doomed us!" the eldest, Kikyo, cried.

"The king will probably kidnap one of us this very night!" Sango, the middle child, said.

"The king must not be very smart," Kagome, the youngest, observed. "If one of us could spin straw into gold, why would we still be so poor and living in a wretched mill?"

But her two sisters shushed her and admonished her for being so silly, for sensible thinking had no place being in a fairytale.

The three continued their discussion long into the night until all the candles were burned low. Finally, they came upon a decision.

"I shall go to the king tonight," Kikyo declared. "I shall entrust myself into the care of God and the saints, and He will protect me and allow us a way out of this mess."

Sango and Kagome were terribly worried for their dear sister, but Kikyo insisted it was her duty as the eldest to sacrifice herself for her family. So Sango and Kikyo packed a few scant things for her to take to the castle, in the event Kikyo had time to grab her bundle before she was kidnapped, and together they wept and wept.

But Kagome did not think that it was such a good idea, so the next day at dawn, she packed a bit of bread, a sausage, a flask of milk and her millstones and went out into the forest to see if she could find some other way to change their fate.

It was a long journey walking through the forest, and Kagome had never journeyed so far from home before, so it was a very long walk. When the sun was high, she stopped and sat underneath a large tree and took out her lunch and began to eat.

As it happened, a kitsune thief was in the area, and he saw the young woman with her bread and milk. Feeling devious, he dashed by and tried to snatch the food, only to have his hand smash into something hard. Crying out, he darted up into the tree above the maiden and looked down.

Kagome looked up at him, admonishing.

"This is my lunch," she informed him. "And stealing is wrong. If you want something to eat, you're welcome to ask, and then we can share. But if you try to steal from me I shall have to cut off your head and make a cooking pot of it."

The kitsune blinked and slowly lowered himself to the ground, surprised.

"...may I share your lunch?" he asked.

Kagome smiled. "Certainly."

And so Kagome ate the bread and milk while the kitsune ate the sausage, looking at the miller's daughter all the while, who chatted happily about the weather and the birds.

After a while had passed, the kitsune turned to her, curious. "How did you stop my hand?" he asked. "Otherwise, I would have stolen your lunch for sure."

"I put millstones around it," Kagome said. "It helped to keep it from blowing away or rolling downhill, as well as protect my food from thieves.

He blinked, surprised at her creative ingenuity, and he offered her a smile. "What's your name?" he asked.

"Kagome," said Kagome.

"I am called Kurama, and I am a kitsune thief of these parts," he said, sweeping her a bow. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Kagome made a face. "Stealing is wrong. You shouldn't be a thief," she informed him. "Have you no other skills?"

Kurama blinked, startled, before pausing. "...I have power over plants," he said thoughtfully. "That could be a skill."

"Really?" Kagome asked, surprised. "Show me?"

Kurama pulled a rose seed from his pack and placed it on his hand, and Kagome watched in awe as it sprouted into a beautiful rose that if left to nature, surely would have taken months to grow.

"It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, when the rose had finished. "You should be a gardener or a farmer! You could grow amazing crops and help stop the famines and sell beautiful flowers in the market for everyone to see."

Kurama laughed. "Perhaps," he said. He stood, holding out his hand. "Shall we continue on?"

Kagome took his hand and Kurama pulled her up, and together they continued on through the forest, talking and chatting as they walked through the trees. Eventually, Kurama asked her just what she was doing in the forest when it was so dangerous for a maiden to traverse alone.

"Oh, I'm looking for a place to learn how to spin straw into gold," Kagome said. And she related the story of her father's fib to the kitsune.

"That's a very odd task," the thief said, hiding his amusement. "And you plan to learn to free you from the king's wrath?"

"It makes more sense than crossing your fingers and hoping God helps out," Kagome pointed out. "At the very least, I can find out if such a thing is even possible at all."

"Indeed," Kurama agreed, and they continued on.

The continued for a long time until the shadows of the trees began to get longer and longer, and Kagome began to worry.

"I need to get back home," she said. "After dark, the forest unsafe for me, even with my millstones for protection."

"Allow me to accompany you back home," Kurama offered, and before Kagome could say anything, he swept her up into her arms and ran so fast that she was home in an instant, and he gently set her down onto her feet just as the sun began to set.

"That was... quick," Kagome said, breathless, her face slightly red from the wind. "Thank you."

"It was my pleasure," Kurama said, offering her a smile and sweeping her a bow once more.

Kagome frowned. "I should offer you something in exchange for your help and companionship," she said. "I am only a poor miller's daughter, though. I have nothing to give."

"You could give me your golden necklace," he said. "That would be a fair trade."

Kagome blinked.

"I'm a poor miller's daughter!" she exclaimed. "What on earth makes you think I have a golden necklace?"

Kurama laughed.

"Give me one of your millstones, then," Kurama suggested. "You can still mill with only two."

Kagome agreed that this was a good idea, so she offered the stone to Kurama, who took it and put it into his pack, before turning back to her.

"Thank you for today," he said, smiling. "It was enjoyable."

"Likewise," Kagome said, smiling back. "And you should consider selling your flowers. Your roses are beautiful."

His eyes fathomless, Kurama withdrew the rose he had grown for Kagome earlier from behind his hair. Gently removing the stem and all lingering thorns, he tucked it behind her ear.

"Not nearly as beautiful as you," he said, reverent, and then he as gone.

Kagome blinked, somewhat stunned from his rapid disappearance, before shrugging to herself and going back to the mill, where Kikyo and Sango waited impatiently.

"Where were you all day?!" Kikyo demanded. "I could have been taken by the king!"

"Would my have being here have helped at all?" Kagome asked, tilting her head, and Kikyo faltered.

"...well, no, but you still shouldn't have gone out all day!" she admonished. "What do you have to show for your day's work?"

"I traded one of my millstones for a man's smile and a beautiful flower," Kagome said, touching the rose, and Kikyo grew angry.

"Oh, you are hopeless!" she announced, and stormed back into the house.

That night, the evil king Sesshomaru sent his men on swift steeds in the darkness to capture the miller's daughter who could spin straw into gold. They rode through the mill wildly, creating a great clamor, before kidnapping Kikyo as she screamed, not even leaving her enough time to grab her carefully-prepared pack.

The next morning, the miller was desolate.

"Oh, what have I condemned my daughter to?!" he wailed, and he locked himself into his room to cry some more.

Sango was very upset at Kikyo's departure, but she kept a stoic face.

"I will try to prepare the finest bread the king has ever had to try and soothe his anger when he discovers the lie," Sango said bravely. "Hopefully then he will grant us his forgiveness." And she went into the kitchen to cook.

Kagome did not think this was a good idea, though, so once more she journeyed into the forest, her millstones and lunch tucked into her belt.

It was a long journey walking through the forest, so Kagome hiked up her skirts and walked on. A ways into the forest, though, Kurama appeared from between the trees.

"Kagome," he said, offering her a bow. "I see you have returned. How fares your quest?"

"Not well," Kagome said grimly, and then she told him about how the king had taken her sister in the night. After she had finished, Kurama looked thoughtful, stroking his chin as he pondered.

"There is a man and a monk who live in this forest," he said. "Legend has it that they have all sorts of uncanny abilities, to be able to live in the forest so long. They might be able to help you."

"Oh!" exclaimed Kagome. "I certainly hope so! Where do they live?"

At this, the thief's eyes sparkled. "Why should I tell you?" he teased.

Kagome frowned. "For one thing, it's polite," she said pointedly. "If you had no intentions of telling me, it was cruel to mention them and rouse my hopes only to dash them again moments later. Secondly, I might be inclined to share my lunch with you again should you help me once more."

"You are likely to share your lunch with me whether I help you or not," Kurama pointed out. "You are so kind that I can't see you refusing to share."

Kagome considered. "That is true," she conceded. "I suppose you have no reason to help me after all."

Kurama smiled at this.

"I will show you the way if you give me the golden ring from your fourth finger," he said gallantly.

Kagome looked at her bare hand, paused, and frowned.

"_What?"_

"I said, give me one of your millstones, and I will take you there," Kurama said, his eyes sparkling, and Kagome bit her lip.

"Without my millstones, I can't mill," she said. "I need at least two..."

"You can always mill against a large rock on the ground," he said. "It might be uncomfortable, but it would work."

Kagome acknowledged that this was true, and so she handed over her second millstone. As soon as she had, Kurama tucked it away and picked her up, racing through the trees, arriving at a small hut in the center of the very deep woods.

"Here we are," Kurama said, gently setting her down, and Kagome marveled at the small house.

"How unusual," she said, looking over it. "Not only is it completely made with stones and marble that had to come from the market place miles and miles away, but the chimney is smoking when it's positively boiling outside!"

Kurama smirked, and Kagome went to knock on the door, the kitsune right behind her.

On the third knock, an angry looking man with long black white hair and funny ears answered the door.

"_What?"_ he demanded, and Kagome looked rather taken aback.

"I- I was-"

"Get on with it," the strange man spat, and Kagome grew angry.

"Now see here!" she snapped, seizing the man by the ear and dragging him down her to level. "I'm on a quest to find a way to spin straw into gold, and I've been walking for a very long time and my entire family's in danger! I came here to ask for help, but you have no reason to be so snotty answering the door for someone who's perfectly legitimate and polite!"

"Ow ow ow ow ow!!" cried the man, wincing and yelping at his ear as she yelled into it. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Please, let me go!!"

"That's better," Kagome said, satisfied, letting his ear go, and Kurama laughed from behind as the odd man rubbed at his ears.

"You can come in then, I guess," he grumbled, going back into the cottage, and Kagome was only to happy to follow him in, Kurama not far behind.

"Who is it, Inuyasha?" called a voice from within.

"Just some stupid travelers looking for help," the man called Inuyasha scowled, and he led them into a wooden room where a man in blue and purple robes was sitting, surrounded by ancient scrolls, who stood up when they entered.

"Forgive my companion's rudeness," he said, bowing low, taking Kagome's hand. "I am Miroku, a humble monk, and this is my friend, Inuyasha. We are at your service." He kissed her hand, and Kagome's face colored as Kurama's eyes narrowed at the sight.

"I'm Kagome, and this is Kurama," she said, gesturing. "We're on a quest."

"Pleasure," Kurama said, gripping Miroku's hand tightly, offering him an edged smile. Miroku's eyes widened and he nodded, pulling his hand back, retreating from the pair.

"How may we be of service?" Miroku asked, and Kagome launched into her tale. When she had finished, both of the strangers looked thoughtful.

"You need to spin straw into gold..." Miroku murmured, stroking his chin.

"I think I smell ramen..." Inuyasha said thoughtfully, sniffing by the window.

"Clearly," Miroku said, ignoring his companion. "We have two problems here. The first is, you require a spindle that is wide enough and made with a wood that would allow straw to be wrapped around it. The second, of course, is it would have to turn the straw into gold."

Kagome frowned. "That is quite true," she admitted. "Where would I be able to get such things?"

"I could enchant such a spindle, if we could find one made properly for the task," Miroku said. The turned to the other, who was poking around the kitchen. "Inuyasha, do you know of a spindle like that?"

Inuyasha grew thoughtful, before his eyes lit up. "Wait right here!" he said, and ran outside.

Kagome looked at Kurama, who shrugged. A clamor was heard outside, as well as the sound of many small things hitting the side of the house, before Inuyasha ran back inside holding something, his hands and feet covered with dirt.

"I found this ages ago in a trash heap in the old village we lived at!" he said, holding it out. "Will this work?"

Miroku took the spindle and examined it, while Kagome stared at the odd man, Kurama quietly snickering behind them.

"...did you just dig that out of the _mud_?" she demanded.

Inuyasha bristled defensively. "It was a good hiding place!"

Kurama only laughed.

"This will work," Miroku said, satisfied. "Now: watch."

Taking a scroll and a pot of ink, Miroku covered the scroll in elaborate symbols before attaching it the the spindle. He bent his head as if in prayer, made a sign, and suddenly, the scroll burned off, and the spindle shone as if it itself was made of gold.

"This should work," he said, holding out the spindle. Overjoyed, Kagome reached out to take it, but Miroku held it back.

"Ah ah ah," he admonished, a devious gleam entering his eye. "First, we must discuss the issue of payment."

Kagome frowned. "I have nothing," she said. "I suppose I could mill flour for you, if you needed it..."

"That's not quite what we're after," Miroku said, blinking. "No... what I would really like... is for a woman to bear my child."

Kagome and Kurama gasped, and Kurama's eyes began to bleed gold as he shifted, removing a rose from his hair, stroking it, as if he were about to use it to do something terrible.

"Monk," he said, his tone low and dangerous. "If you even so much as _think _that-"

"Oh!"

Kurama and Miroku turned to look at Kagome, who was looking at Miroku with a look of pity.

"I understand," she said, her voice quaking with her sympathy for the situation. "No wonder you two moved so far into the forest... people can be so judgmental, after all, even though there's nothing wrong with... it's a perfectly acceptable lifestyle..."

Miroku's eyes grew huge as Kurama started to laugh, and Kagome continued on.

"Of course, this shouldn't stop you from raising the child you both desire, but with things as they are, after all... I don't know much of it, but I'm sure I could find you a surrogate somewhere. I'm sure there are women who are willing to help you out with that sort of thing-"

Inuyasha choked.

"I suppose it makes sense for it to be your child, doesn't it? I mean, after all, you're the more masculine of the two of you, and you'd be the father, naturally, while Inuyasha would gravitate more towards the role of the-"

"I am **NOT **GAY!"

Everyone turned to look at Inuyasha. His face was red and he was sputtering with embarrassment and rage. Kagome gave him a pitying look.

"It's okay, Inuyasha," she said comfortingly. "It's perfectly natural, you know, and we understand-"

"I'M NOT GAY!!"

Inuyasha launched into an angry tirade of why he was not gay, and Kagome looked up at Miroku, startled, while Kurama snickered quietly behind her.

Miroku appeared stunned. "I- we- Miss Kagome, I assure you- we-"

At a loss for words, he stuttered, stumbling, apparently knocked off-balance by the presumption of his apparent homosexuality. Kagome frowned.

"Well, if that's not what you want a child for," Kagome said, "then what on earth were you talking about?"

"He was trying to get you to give them girlfriends," Kurama said, leaning down, and Kagome's eyes lit up.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Why didn't you just say so?"

Miroku locked eyes with Kurama, hard green holding the shamed purple.

"I know just the women," Kagome said, smiling. "My sisters would be only too happy to meet you, and after all, they should help contribute to their salvation too, so I'm sure they'd be more than willing to-"

"Yes, of course," Kurama said. "You shall set your sisters up with Inuyasha and Miroku in sort of a grand double-date after all this trouble is passed, and in return, they will give you the magic spindle. What a wonderful deal."

Kagome beamed, but the monk frowned.

"A _date?_" he said. "Just... a normal date? Nothing more?"

"Nothing more," Kurama asserted, giving him a hard look. "_Right?_"

"Right," Inuyasha agreed for them quickly, looking relieved at the reaffirmation of his heterosexuality. "Just a date."

Miroku looked considerably put out at this, but Inuyasha ignored his scowl.

"Now," Kurama said pleasantly. "Give Kagome the spindle, and her sisters will be in touch shortly to iron out the fine details."

Grumbling to himself, Miroku reluctantly handed over the spindle, and Kagome tucked it away into her pack happily.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, beaming. "Thank you ever so much!"

With kind words of gratitude all around, they departed, and Kagome discovered that once again, the sun was going down. She opened her mouth, but before she could say a word, Kurama swept her into his arms once more and raced off.

In only a few minutes, they were back at the edge of the forest, and Kagome could see the sun setting behind the mill. She turned to Kurama.

"Thank you for the ride," she said. "But really, you could have warned me. I almost yelled at the surprise."

"My apologies," Kurama said, his eyes sparkling. He bowed, giving her hand a kiss. "Until we meet again, Kagome."

He was gone once more, and Kagome happily went down the hill to her home.

Sango had not had much luck with her special bread for the king. The yeast had been overdone, and the bread had risen until it had collapsed in on itself, leaving nothing but a doughy mess. She was in tears when Kagome returned, but Kagome quickly ran to comfort her sister.

"Don't worry," she said, soothing. "I have a spindle that will turn straw into gold! Come, let us try it, and we shall be saved."

Hopeful, the two sisters went to the barn to try spinning it, only to discover to their dismay that neither of them knew how to spin at all. The straw kept splintering off of the spindle and slipping off the the wheel, and when they managed to spin it into a yarn, it untwisted and disappeared in thousands of tiny golden fibers, floating away on the breeze.

At this, Sango despaired.

"We shall never escape our fate," she wept, and Kagome worriedly tried to comfort her, reassuring her that she would go out the next day and find something to help them avoid their fate.

Meanwhile, the king Sesshomaru had locked Kikyo into a room with naught but a spinning wheel and straw and demanded her to have it all turned to gold by sunset. When, at the end of the day, that Kikyo had not spun any straw into gold, he fell into a terrible rage and had her thrown into the dungeon. He realized now that the miller must have more than one daughter, and that his men have taken the wrong one.

"Fetch me the right girl!" he demanded, and the men rode off to the miller's house again. Again, they rode through the mill wildly and loudly, creating a great clamor, before kidnapping Sango, who screamed and wept as they carried her off.

The next morning, the miller was even more desolate at the loss of his second daughter and refused to come out of his room as he wailed his despair into his pillow. Kagome, however, was unfazed, and she tucked her spindle, lunch, and last remaining millstone into her belt and set out for the forest once more.

Immediately upon entering, Kurama dropped down in front of her from a tree and swept her a bow.

"My lady Kagome, how are you on this fine day?" he inquired.

"Not well," Kagome said, and she told him of all that had transpired the previous night.

"That _is_ quite a problem," Kurama said as they walked along. "You're quite sure you don't know how to spin?"

"How _would_ I know?" Kagome pointed out. "I'm a miller's daughter. I mill things, not spin them. It's completely ridiculous to expect me to instinctually know something like that as if were embedded into me just because of my femininity."

"That's a fair point," Kurama said, hiding a smile. "I never thought it that way."

"Now I need to find someone to teach me how to spin," Kagome said, thoughtful. She looked up at Kurama. "Is there anyone in the forest who could teach me how to spin?"

Kurama's eyes danced. "Oh, I daresay there is," he said casually.

"Really?" Kagome said excitedly.

"Oh, most certainly," Kurama said, a smile playing about his lips.

"Who? Tell me who?" Kagome pleaded. Kurama smiled.

"Me."

"You?" Kagome said, her mouth falling open in shock. "_You_ know how to spin?"

"Why wouldn't I know?" Kurama teased. "Do you think just because I am a man that I'm forbidden from acquiring such a skill?"

Kagome blinked, before looking back up at him.

"Would you teach me how to spin?" she asked, her eyes pleading. "Please?"

Kurama smiled. "What will you give me in payment?" he asked.

Kagome sighed. "I could give you my lunch," she offered. "All of it. Or my spindle, when I'm done with it..."

"I have no use for bread or gold," Kurama said dismissively.

"Then what do you want?" Kagome asked, desperation tinging her tone.

Kurama smiled.

"Your first-born child."

"Get real!" Kagome said, smacking him on the arm. "I'm being serious here! My sisters are in danger!"

Kurama laughed.

"I will trade your teaching for your last millstone," he said, his eyes sparkling. "Only then will I teach you what you need to know."

Kagome took out her last millstone, weighing it heavily in her hand.

"Your sisters are lost forever if you do not," Kurama pointed out, and with a sigh, Kagome handed him her last.

An impish smile immediately appeared on Kurama's face, as if the last part of some great plan had finally fallen into place, and with nary a warning, he swept her up into his arms and dashed across the forest to the place where the market was, arriving as a small house with a neatly kept garden at the edge of the forest and the town.

"This is my house," Kurama said, opening the door. "Please, step inside."

Kagome looked around. The house was rather small but well-kept, and it had a pleasing, happy feel to it.

"I like it," Kagome declared, and Kurama smiled.

"Now, lady," he said. "To your lessons."

Kurama brought out a spinning wheel and a wooden chair for her to sit upon, and he taught Kagome to spin.

It took a long time. Kagome was not very graceful with the yarn or the spindle. She often forgot to tread as she spun and lick where she should have, and she continually pricked herself, staining the yarn with blood. Kurama was patient, though, and slowly but surely, Kagome mastered the skill.

"I did it!" she exclaimed excitedly when it was all over, looking at the long stretch of yarn she had produced throughout the day.

"You did," Kurama told her, smiling. Kagome smiled, proud.

"I did it," she said again, more quietly. "I can save my sisters now."

"We had better hurry, then," Kurama said, looking out the window at the setting sun. "You must get ready if you are to go off to the king's."

Kurama swept Kagome up once more, and Kagome put her arms around his neck as he raced her back home. He bowed once more after he set her down, and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"I shall see you again soon," he vowed, and vanished back into the forest once more.

At home, Kagome changed her clothes and got together her spindle and some food, because she couldn't be sure the evil king would feed her while she was there. She ignored her father as he wept and wept, and when the king's men came to get her, having found that the second daughter could spin straw to gold no better than the first, they found her waiting on the stairs to the house.

"I'm ready," she said, and they put her on a saddle and rode off to the castle once more.

At dawn, the king Sesshomaru took her to the same tower Kikyo and Sango had been locked in to.

"You are to spin this straw into gold by the end of the day," the king announced, throwing open a door to a large room full of straw. "If you do, I will give you a small payment. You have until dusk." With that, he closed the door and locked it, and Kagome sat down on the chair and sighed.

"Well, I'd better get started then," she said reasonably, switching the spindle from the wheel for the one in her belt, and Kagome started to spin.

By dusk, Kagome had finished, and had had time to take a considerable nap before the king returned. When he did, he was amazed.

"The miller's words were true," he said, and Kagome bit her lip to refrain from rolling her eyes. The king turned to her, his amber eyes meeting her own blue.

"You have held your part of the bargain," he said. "Now I shall hold mind. What do you want in payment?"

"Release my sister Kikyo from the dungeon," Kagome said, and the king shrugged, as it was no issue to him.

That night, Kagome saw Kikyo fleeing from the dungeon and running off into the night back towards home, and Kagome smiled.

The next day, the king Sesshomaru took Kagome to an even larger room with even more straw.

"You will spin this all to gold by dusk," he told her. "If you do so, I shall grant you a burden once more."

Again, she was locked in, and Kagome sat down to spin, the wheel whirring and whirring away.

By dusk, she had finished, heaps and heaps of gold piled around the room, and once more, the king was amazed.

"Ask anything of me," he told her, "and you shall have it."

"Release my sister Sango from the dungeon," Kagome told him.

"It will be done," the king told her, and that night, Kagome saw Sango run home, free as well, and she felt happy once more.

The third day, the king took Kagome to the highest room of the tower.

"This was the royal bedroom at one point," he told her. "I have had it cleared out."

Kagome looked around in dismay. In addition to the huge chamber before her, there were two other chambers leading off from the first one, all full with piles and piles of straw.

"Have it done by dusk," the king demanded, and he locked her in once more.

Irritated, Kagome opened the window, upset at the king's unreasonable demands. She had no problem spinning straw into gold for him, but at this rate? It was impossible.

Angrily, Kagome threw her chair out the window, yelling as loud as she could. She regretted it as soon as she had, for how would she have a place to sit?

A moment later, a familiar red head popped up in her window, holding a chair in one hand, climbing up ivy with the other.

"Need any help?"

"Kurama!" Kagome exclaimed, and she ran to the window to help him climb in.

Looking around at all the straw, Kurama whistled.

"We have a lot of work to do," he said, pulling up a spinning wheel he had brought from home. "Let's get started." Taking her enchanted spindle, he quickly snapped it in two and grafted halves of the normal spindle onto the enchanted halves.

"You take this half, and I shall take the other," he said, seating himself upon a mushroom that had magically sprouted on the stone ground. "If we hurry, we can get it done."

Kagome didn't hear him. She was too busy spinning as he spoke.

Kagome and Kurama worked non-stop from dawn until dusk, spinning as fast and as frantically as they could. Just as they were finishing up, Kagome heard a key in the chamber lock, and the door swung open to reveal the king.

"Who is this?" he demanded, upon seeing Kurama.

"Oh, he's just- my assistant," Kagome said, thinking fast.

The king opened his mouth to object, but Kurama stepped aside, allowing the king to see all the piles of gold they had spun, and greed took over his eyes.

"You are amazing," he told Kagome. "I have fallen deeply in love with you. Marry me, spin for me, and we shall live happily ever after."

Kagome frowned. "No."

The king blinked. "No?"

"No," Kagome reasserted, as Kurama came over and put his arm around her waist. "Not only are you really mean and I just don't like you, but that's a ridiculous proposal. So much gold would send the inflation rate of the kingdom spiraling and it'd be worth next to nothing in the course of a week. Your economy would plummet and you'd have angry peasants on your hands, in addition to an unhappy marriage. That's a terrible idea."

The king paused.

"...I never considered that," he confessed.

"Well, you should have," Kurama noted. "You'd be better off showing all the leading merchants of the village all the golden straw you have and blackmailing them into giving you a portion of their goods. They'd suffer far more than the castle from such a inflation rate, and you'd become wealthier as part of the bargain as well.

The king looked pleased. "I like that idea," he said.

"Good," said Kagome. "Then I'm leaving."

The king Sesshomaru nodded wordlessly, still looking at all the gold, and Kagome slipped the enchanted spindles out of the spinning wheels and tucked them into her belt. Kurama then escorted her out of the tower and out of the castle, whereupon she set about walking home.

"I'm so glad I managed to save myself and my sisters," she said, sighing her relief. "Now things can go back to normal."

"Or will they?" Kurama mused, and Kagome turned to him, confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

Kurama bent down on one knee, and Kagome's eyes bulged.

"Kagome," he said, withdrawing an elegant silver ring from his pocket. "Will you marry me?"

"What?" Kagome said, confused. "No. Why?"

Kurama stood up, amused, and took out her millstones. "You have no way to support yourself anymore, save ruining the country's economy," he said tossing the stones into the air and catching them. "We could raise a garden together and go for walks in the forest, and you could wear flowers in your hair all the time."

Kagome gave him an odd look.

"Just because I don't have my millstones doesn't mean I can't still mill," she said. "I can buy news ones, or use the old ones hidden in the shed.

"True," Kurama admitted. "But I quite like you. You're beautiful, you're clever, you're amusing, and you're unusual. I'd quite like to spend more time with you and get to kiss you whenever I wanted."

"Kiss me?" Kagome asked, startled.

"Kiss you," Kurama affirmed, and proceeded to do just that.

A while later, they broke for air, Kagome's face quite flushed as she squirmed slightly in his arms. She rested her head on his chest, hearing Kurama's heart beating rapidly, and sighed in contentment.

"Alright," she said. "I'll marry you."

And so Kurama and Kagome were wedded the following month in a little chapel inside of town. Inuyasha and Kikyo were in attendance, who were getting on marvelously, as did Miroku and Sango, who seemed to have a love/hate relationship crackling between them. Her father wept buckets at his younger daughter's wedding, and when he went off to the stable to sob into the hay, no one noticed he was gone.

And so Kagome moved into Kurama's small cottage, taking her spindles, clothes, and a few other things with her. Together, Kurama and Kagome made a nice business of selling crops, flowers, and finely-spun yarns and bits of gold. After all the day's work had been completed, they would go for long walks in the forest, just talking and laughing about the world, and then they would return home to watch the sunset on the hill behind their house in each other's arms, snuggling and kissing underneath the painted sky.

Kagome eventually had a child and named it Ameko (though Kurama wanted to call it Rumpelstiltskin, for some odd reason), who grew to be a beautiful, independent woman who had immense talent in playing the flute. Kagome and Kurama were very proud of her, and when she went off into the world to seek her fortune, they gave her three millstones, and a bit of bread, milk, and sausage to tuck into her belt before wishing her the best, and they went back to their peaceful, contented lives.

And they lived happily ever after.

**The End**


End file.
